Leavitt Slams ‘Fake News’ Story Claiming Administration Targets Migrant Foster Kids

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt sharply criticized the Miami Herald for publishing an article claiming the Trump administration is targeting migrant foster children.

Leavitt said she was “aghast” at the headline: “Trump administration targets Florida foster kids, migrant youth for deportations.”

“It’s egregious to accuse this administration of trying to target foster children,” Leavitt told The Daily Signal at Thursday’s press briefing. “That is not at all what is happening at the Department of Homeland Security, and I learned that the Department of Homeland Security actually tried to work in good faith with this reporter to get this story right, to explain that this administration is trying to protect foster children.”

On average, 11,132 unaccompanied children were encountered at the southern border monthly under the Biden administration, according to a DHS official. The Biden administration lost track of more than 320,000 migrant children who crossed the border without their parents.

“We are trying to keep children out of harm’s way, even if that means their parents are not law-abiding citizens,” Leavitt continued. “We want to protect children, unlike the previous administration, which allowed children to be trafficked and raped, and in some cases killed, because of the open-border policies.”

The Miami Herald “degraded” itself with the false report, Leavitt said. The South Florida publication failed to report on thousands of children entering the country with traffickers under the Biden administration, she added.

“It’s another example of fake news, and the May border numbers speak for themselves,” Leavitt said. “Not a single illegal alien was allowed into this country because of this administration’s border policies in the month of May. That means not a single child was allowed into this country, possibly with human smugglers or human traffickers.”